Life Is Golden
by vanskaa
Summary: Four boys trying to get through their last year of high school. The woes of high school teenagers. Thiefshipping and Deathshipping, AU.


**First chapter of Life is Golden; it's going to be short, but they will grow longer as more things happen.**

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><p>Chapter 1 – Names<p>

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><p>He never thought that he, Touzouku Bakura, would say that he wished his father was home for a change.<p>

It wasn't the the oldest Touzouku brother wanted his father at home with him. No, he was glad to be rid of that parasite. It was his younger brother that was the problem.

Touzouku Ryou was crying. From Bakura's experience with his younger brother, Ryou did not cry unless it was for a very valid reason. The problem was, that when Ryou did cry, Bakura did not know what to do or say to Ryou to comfort him. Whatever Bakura tried, Ryou could not be comforted. Maybe it was because Bakura wasn't a nurturing individual, or maybe it was because Bakura was just his older brother, but when Ryou cried around their father, he would be immediately comforted. And Bakura fucking despised it with a passion.

Even now, with the Touzouku brothers being seventeen and going into their senior year, and their father having abandoned them five years ago, Bakura still couldn't comfort Ryou. He had tried, of course he had, but Ryou just could not be comforted. It made Bakura feel useless, and Bakura also despised feeling useless.

Bakura heard Ryou's footsteps padding down the hall towards his room. A soft knock before the click of the door handle as the younger Touzouku twin entered the dark room that Bakura called his.

"K-Kura, can I stay in here with you?" Ryou asked, hiccuping slightly from crying. Bakura sighed. Ryou was the only person who he was ever remotely kind to, but even this was a bit much. Ryou hadn't stayed in Bakura's room since he was twelve. Another thing – Ryou was the only person who could call Bakura "Kura". If anybody else even tried nicknaming him, their life would not be worth living.

"Sure. What's wrong?" Bakura asked, sitting up and watching his twin brother walk over to his bed. Only when Ryou was lying down comfortably, looking at his older brother's hard, harsh face, did he begin to speak.

"I had a dream about...him." Ryou's large fawn eyes began to water slightly, and Bakura heaved another sigh, holding out his arms to his twin brother. Ryou wasted no time in nestling into Bakura's colder-than-normal body. After all, his twin was all he had right now.

"He's gone, Ry. He's gone, and he's never coming back. And if he ever did, he will never, ever, touch you again. I won't allow it." Bakura heard a sniffle from his twin and looked down at him.

"I know you won't. You barely allow me to hang out with Yugi-kun and the others."

"That's because they're stupid, with their friendship bullshit. I don't want you to catch stupid." Ryou giggled at his older brother, who smirked back at him.

"Thank you, Kura."

"No problem. Try and get to sleep, alright?"

The twins told each other goodnight before moving away from each other. During the night, when Ryou would toss slightly, Bakura would wake up, feeling his twin's distress, and patting his hair awkwardly. It wasn't like Bakura minded. No one else ever saw the kind side of him. It was reserved only for his twin.

The next morning, Bakura awoke, feeling groggy. He stretched out his long limbs and swung his skinny legs over the side of the bed, walking like a zombie downstairs where the smell of cooking bacon seemed to be his saviour. Ryou was already dressed and groomed to his usual self, in his school uniform and hair down flat, unlike his twin brother who was in his baggy Siouxsie and the Banshees t-shirt and a pair of black sweatpants, hair sticking up in a more akimbo manner than usual. Ryou stifled a laugh. Bakura always woke up late.

Bakura collected his plate of bacon and eggs and sat on the sofa, clicking on the television to see what the morning's programmes would hold. As per usual, it was the usual talk shows that he disliked. He gave the remote control to Ryou, and focused on his breakfast. Today was the first day back at school since the summer.

After a few more seconds thought, Bakura snorted. No reason to be worried. No one dared come near Ryou and no one talked to him apart from his best friend and of course, Ryou. Everybody was scared of going near the three of them, and that was the way Bakura liked it.

Half an hour later, Bakura was in the school pants, a white shirt with the sleeves pushed up to reveal muscular forearms and his Ramones t-shirt visible underneath. The jacket was stuffed into his backpack, and his hair was combed, and was as neat as it could be. Ryou poked the two spikes on either side of his head, that refused to flatten no matter what he did, and sighed.

"I wish they would go down so you looked presentable," Ryou muttered, and Bakura frowned at his brother.

"Leave it. Who's driving?" Ryou threw the car keys to his brother and the two left their apartment, hopping into the battered black car that was they loved. Bakura twisted the keys in the ignition and the car purred to life, taking them on the familiar ten minute drive to Domino High School. Picking a CD to play was hard work – always was. Ryou was into pop music that sounded exactly the same as everything else, and Bakura old school punk, rock and metal. Usually, however, Bakura got his way, and this morning he picked Bon Jovi; an old favourite of his mother's.

No matter how irritating Ryou's music taste was, there were some bands where they crossed over. Such as Skindred; but Ryou always wanted to listen to Britney bloody Spears, as Bakura had named her.

As they pulled into the student parking lot, a bike with Mariku atop it drew up beside the Touzoukus' car. Another kid was atop the bike, and Bakura raised an eyebrow at the offending person.

Mariku shook his spiky hair out of his helmet and grinned at Bakura crazily; one eye popping out more than the other. Bakura smirked and they bumped fists.

"Who's your friend, Ishtar?" Bakura asked, jerking his head in the direction of his best friend's bike passenger. The passenger was removing his helmet and Mariku sighed blandly before smirking at Bakura.

"My brother. Ishizu and him finally decided to make the move over to Japan with Rishid and I. He's my older twin, actually."

Bakura looked at the boy who Mariku said was his older brother. He was tall; taller than Bakura and a shade shorter than Mariku. If Bakura had to guess, he'd say the boy was five foot eleven, which made him four inches taller than Bakura's five foot seven. His skin was the same dark tan as Mariku's and his hair the same platinum blond, but softer, shorter and flatter than Mariku's tangled, spiky mane. The boy turned to look at Bakura.

Yeah, definitely twins. The boy had the exact same face as Mariku, but slightly softer, and more haughty, like a stuck-up brat that got everything he wanted if he creeped to his sister and adopted brother.

"What's his name?" Bakura asked, still sizing up the new Egyptian.

"Malik."

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><p><strong>Please comment and tell me how you think the first chapter is.<strong>


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